The Most In-Demand Technologies of 2018

The Most In-Demand Technologies of 2018

Organizations who embrace the latest technologies are in a constant state of evolution, vying to implement better and faster technology before their competition. This translates into intense demand for IT professionals versed in the latest technologies and makes positions in those areas significantly more difficult to fill. While we are already in the midst of a massive IT skills gap, it’s imperative to fully understand current tech trends in the marketplace before looking to hire. Read on to explore six of the most in-demand technologies of 2018.

Artificial Intelligence

Encompassing a wide variety of trends, the growth of AI has been dominant as organizations across the globe rush to implement the technology. It’s become a huge factor for businesses across multiple disciplines, from AI implementations in customer service to more intuitive, user-friendly, product interfaces. The multitude of uses is reflected in its growth– jobs requiring AI skills have grown more than four times over since 2013. Not only are established businesses looking to implement AI, but the number of active startups creating and using AI systems has increased by a factor of three since 2010. AI promises to become even more important for companies look to stay ahead of their competition. This combined with an already challenging talent market means companies will likely have to pay top dollar for the skilled professionals they seek.

The Cloud

In the past few years, businesses have been flocking to the cloud in such large numbers that studies predict more than 50% of global enterprises will use one or more public cloud platforms by the end of 2018. This comes as the annual compound growth rate for the cloud market continues at a healthy 22%. With use of the cloud continuing to expand, individuals with specific skills in Microsoft Azure and similar technologies are even more critical to companies looking to stay ahead of the curve.

The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) offers solutions for everything from security and streaming analytics to remote monitoring and data management. With such a wide array of uses, growth is almost inevitable, and by 2022, the IoT market is expected to grow to $561.04 billion – more than three times its current size. The first generation of IoT products – smart watches, fitness trackers, smart thermostats – has seen great success, and the International Data Corporation predicts that IoT hardware will be the biggest technology category in 2018. As 94% of businesses claim to be investing in IoT initiatives, this in-demand technology will create large numbers of open positions in research, development, and security that qualified tech talent will need to fill.

Cybersecurity

High-profile cyberattacks, like 2017’s Equifax breach and Yahoo hack, have put cybersecurity top-of-mind for consumers and businesses alike. For most organizations, a breach is more than just a loss of information – it’s also a massive PR nightmare. According to the White House Council of Economic Advisors, the U.S. economy loses as much as $109 billion each year to malicious cyber activity. The fiscal impact, coupled with resulting impact in consumer confidence, make cybersecurity a rising priority that’s here to stay. Growth in the field is happening so rapidly that the supply of talent simply can’t keep up, with current projections at a whopping 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs by 2021.

Python

Recently, Python has been widely reported as the fastest-growing programming language. It’s user-friendly for programmers, has a large standard library, and serves as the code behind a variety of high-profile sites like Google, Dropbox, and Instagram. As a popular language for both data science and machine learning, Python will continue its growth with these two industries. Python frequently makes the cut for lists of most in-demand IT skills, and it’s little wonder why.

The Most In-Demand Technologies of 2018

The tech industry is in a constant state of evolution, as innovative minds continue to refine and redesign the tools and languages they work with. This makes it even harder for IT pros to keep up with the hottest technologies and more challenging than ever for companies to hire tech talent with the skills they want. With this in mind, it’s important to consider alternative hiring strategies and partnering with a staffing partner like Benchmark IT to fulfill your tech talent needs.

Are you searching for IT pros that will help you stay on top of 2018’s in-demand technologies? Benchmark IT can help.